THE NEW YOR.KER and I came, and I saw that my house had been bulldozed, not one stone left on another." "Why were they searching for your son? What had he done?" "They say he killed Israelis. I don't know. He never said anything." "You really don't know? Even now you don't know?" "I don't know! I didn't even get along with him. He never spoke to me." This is the story: The son, Ali Muhammad AI-Shehadeh AI-Kal'ilah, left his father's house in Samu'a when he was eighteen years old, and rented a house in Ramallah. He lived there with his wife-a teacher-and their three children. In April of 1978, he was arrested. He confessed to member- ship in the Fatah-one of the guerril- la groups fighting for an Arab Pales- tine-and was released. He claimed that he had been freed on the basis of a certain bargain, and he apparently did not live up to it. In 1979, he was ar- rested again, accused of the original crime, and sentenced to four months in prison with another half year sus- pended. From the moment he was released, he was a marked man: on the one hand, the security forces watched his every step, and, on the other, his former friends tormented him, accus- ing him of collaborating with the enemy. No one spoke to him. He was a pariah. A person who met him during that time testified that it seemed as if he had gone mad. Finally, in 1985, in order to counter the accusations of his friends, the young man went out to the mountains and made contact with a particularly deadly gang of terrorists, a gang that the year before had murdered a Jewish couple. To prove to members of the gang that he was not a collaborator, he killed a settler in the market in Ramallah. When I learned, a week after my conversation with the father, what his son had actually done, I felt that I didn't want to hear any more of the story from the father. I could not find in myself any sympathy at all for him. I thought, I reserve my sympathy for the real victim, for his son's victim. I refused to go back to see him. B UT after three weeks I came to understand that, precisely because of the repugnance I felt, I had to go back to Muhammad Ali AI- Kal 'ilah and hear his story to the end. Muhammad Ali AI-Kal'ilah's 69 house in Samu'a had four rooms and a large garden. In the garden he grew figs, grapes, olives, and vegetables. The rooms were carpeted with rugs his wife had woven with her own hands. It had taken her four months to make each rug. One morning, soldiers came to the house and notified her that she had fifteen minutes to get her daughters and all her belongings out of the house, after which the house would be levelled. In that quarter hour, AI- Kal'ilah's wife took mattresses and blankets, plates and a gas burner, and a suitcase full of clothes, into which she had had the presence of mind to shove the family photograph album. She and her two daughters stood there and cried, while the soldiers knocked down the house and spread its stones over the entire garden. Muhammad Ali AI-Ka]'ilah arrived after the destruc- tion. A neighbor offered the family accommodations in a room of his house. As Muhammad Ali AI-Kal'ilah stood by the ruins of his house, secu- rity personnel approached him once more: "They told me, 'Come, you son of a bitch, come with us now.' I said, 'What more do you want from me?' They said, 'We killed your son.' I @c .,. :::. ::;:: I; :J "" 0)/" 0" .. 41" .... ..' .::':}; .r ',. ':3 ' <:: ,':$ ,:::. : :. /' >. , '.,:. . ' .. ;.' ..,& . .. J{..,._ -' '''w / . "' " ., : : :. :: . ;.;. .". ";;;" ::;: :.: .." .. ." .. "" ". . ::, . - .... 'of' :;:;:., :;'. :. .:::: .. .'::;::' . .:." .,:;::.. .". .: \ ..:. >, <<> '.W .:.: .:::,,/ .,' :::: /" Y :. .; . " .""""^% .4 >> ; '::"" .....:: . : : ,..,. . j /'. <C. :." .z : .;..ø, q @': 'Ø : .: ":"" './ . . : ..::' '.:" ,::' -"':J, ".' H;: )"" :." ":,. ":- :;.... .'.... '" . of' -.".;:". :... .". ... ..ø '.' ;.:. "'= #> > /,.. %* '. . ... ......."^'^"""'.NYIY. . :'. ,<:,1 d , i ":.;. ....: ,., " ,.d f ........;.: "'",;:'" N'4 ." .?Ø ;.; ,:0"/ ':,' : ?It ::' . "h ,::>.j .... f ":"f.:. ,..:v. ,,"':'. .:' ;i' :. K " ;:. ': ::, :;. ..... .<' 1: :', .;,' :,'...:1: ' ,. \ .\ . :. .: . ::. *- ,.:. Make a vacation out of buying a Volkswagen. . Q;/ :t .,'Vr' :,. ", " . .! ";.-'< :; +. Ý You're off to visit Europe. You'll save hundreds off the home at no additional charge* And you can make it a real sticker price and you'" be tour- Visit your local dealer for pleasure trip when you pick up ing Europe in grand style while complete details. a new 1988 Volkswagen Jetta saving money on rent-a-car And start having some fun after Va nag on, Scirocco, Quantum costs. @ your vacation is over. or Cabriolet in anyone of 16 When your trip IS over, we'll "Wj European cities through out Europe. sen d your new Volkswagen Â" Tourist Delivery I Don'tdnnkanddrive I @1987 Volkswagen I Seatbeltssavelives.1 *From Salzburg, Vienna, Brussels, Luxemburg and Oslo $100. From Copenhagen and Stockholm $250 .:-... .. . ... . Yo" : o.t' ".-:' . ".:."